The present invention relates generally to the field of cassette loaders. More specifically, the present invention relates to loaders which load each of a plurality of cassettes into a cassette drive, sequentially or otherwise.
Most personal and small business computers were originally designed for the use of flexible or floppy disk memories. Accordingly, devices for the unattended loading of floppy disks have been developed for a variety of uses. These devices generally include a hopper wherein the disks are stacked for loading into a disk drive. Generally, these devices have been used for making multiple copies of the same program. The use of these devices for storage of large amounts of data on disks has generally proven unsatisfactory due to the large number of disks involved and the difficulty in retrieving data from them.
To ensure the interchangeability of flexible disk and other drives, an industry standard has been established which requires that such drives be constructed so that they fit within a "full height form factor" (of approximately 31/4 inches (8.3 cm) in height by 53/4 inches (14.6 cm) in width by 8 inches (20.3 cm) in length) or a "half height form factor" (of approximately 15/8 inches (4.1 cm) in height by 53/4 inches (14.6 cm) in width by 8 inches (20.3 cm) in length).
The 51/4 inch (13.3 cm) tape drive has achieved great popularity for backing up the data of a personal or small business computer, due to its high storage and rapid data access capabilities. However, more recently, tape drives have been developed by Archive Corporation of Costa Mesa, Calif. which store much more data with an even more rapid data access capability, and are marketed under the trademark "R-DAT". Most users prefer internal drives. The increasing standardization of the computer industry requires that these internal R-DAT drives, like all drives, fit within the full or half height form factor described above.
A standard R-DAT tape may hold up to 5.0 gigabytes of data. However, many applications, including archival storage, journaling, on-line and background storage, and the unattended back-up of large amounts of data, may require storage of several times that amount of data. When backing up a data source of more than 5.0 gigabytes, it is necessary to change the R-DAT tape in a R-DAT cassette drive approximately every two hours. Since most such backing up is done outside of normal work hours to avoid tying up the computer holding the data, it is often not convenient to change the R-DAT tape. Thus, there is a need for a cassette loader capable of holding a plurality of R-DAT cassettes for loading automatically into a R-DAT cassette drive.
Devices for loading and unloading multiple cassettes have been developed. However, many of these devices are adapted for use only with certain low storage capability cassettes, such as standard audio cassettes. Moreover, many of these devices are quite large and expensive. Many users do not require such large devices, and cannot afford to pay for them. Other loading/unloading devices include an external cassette drive, resulting in less consumer satisfaction due to their preferences for internal drives and the greater size and expense of the external drives. Thus, there is a need for a small, relatively inexpensive cassette loader which loads cassettes into an internal tape drive.
Recently, Predator Systems Corporation announced the development of the Data Hawk I, a 4 mm DAT stacker holding eight DAT cassettes for loading and unloading to a 4 mm DAT cassette drive. The Data Hawk I has a load/unload cycle time of over 15 seconds and has an anticipated end user price of approximately $4000. The long cycle time and relatively high price of the device may prove unacceptable to many users. Thus, there remains a need for an inexpensive automated cassette loader with a short load/unload cycle.